


Experience

by MoonCigar



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 05:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonCigar/pseuds/MoonCigar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after Tale of Two Stans. Mabel and Grunkle Stan have a late night conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experience

Stan couldn’t sleep. This day was just too much for him. After so many years of constant preparing, the ends almost didn’t justify the means. It felt like the night he lost Stanford: confused, angry, disappointed, and alone.

Sighing, he took another sip from his Pitt cola, eyes glued to the screen before him. At least he had television to keep him busy this time around.

“Grunkle Stan?” whispered a small voice. It was Mabel, clad in her night gown, body half-hidden behind the door frame.

“I thought I told you guys to head to bed,” Stan grunted.

She looked down, “I couldn’t sleep.”

He stared at her for a moment, expression unreadable.

“Well...get over here, kiddo.” he said, motioning her over.  
Mabel takes her usual seat on the floor, hugging her knees, the low drone of a Mittens for Kittens infomercial filling the air of uneasiness.

“Grunkle Stan, can I ask you something?” Mabel asked, interrupting the noise from the television.

“What is it, kiddo?”

“The thing that happened to you and Great Uncle Ford... you know, how you guys seem to hate each other?”  
Mabel's eyes were drawn downward once again as she squeezed her knees tighter to chest, making herself even smaller.

“Do...Do you think that’s going to happen to Dipper and me?”

There was a pause as Stan registered what she was asking. She sounded as if she were on the verge of crying. But before he could respond, Mabel spoke again, this time speeding up and getting more upset with each word. “Like, are we just going to get older and grow more and more apart to the point where we can’t even be in the same room together? Where he won't want to do anything with me anymore?” The tears were streaming now.

“Hey. Hey, hey, hey...come here.” Placing his drink on the floor and scooping his distressed great niece into his arms, he placed her on the arm of his chair, rubbing her back as he tried to calm her down.

Slowly, her sobs turned into sniffles. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she wiped her face with her shirt.

“If that is what growing up means, I don’t want it.” she croaked.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” Stan internally cursed at himself. He tried to keep his story lighter than it was, hoping it wouldn’t bring the twins down too much. Obviously it didn’t fucking work.

“I'm not going to lie to you, Mabel. I wish I could say that I have some magical formula on not screwing up sibling relationships, but I don't. It’s something I seem to excel in.” Stan paused, leaning down to pick up his drink.

“There is no telling what you and Dipper will be like in the future and whether or not you two will still have the same relationship you both have now. Adulthood is funny like that. One day you're building a boat and dating girls, the next thing you know, you're spending every day of your life trying to rebuild an interdimensional portal. And you don’t even have a high school diploma.” Stan chuckled to himself, taking a swig of Pitt.

“But know this. You and Dipper are not Stanford and I. You two are entirely different people with different experiences and different problems and resolutions that you both will find yourselves.”

Mabel looked towards her great uncle, her hitched breaths subsided. "Do you ever regret spending all this time here?"

Stan looked down at the can in his hands, his brows furled in a pained expression that quickly smoothed into resignation.

"... I don't. If I wasn't here, I wouldn't have been able to spend to the time I have had with you two. For you both, that's enough."

Mabel let go of the breath she was holding in. She was still worried, but Stan could tell that at least his words eased her mind a little. For now, at least.

“You also know that you guys still have me and your parents, right? If you ever want to talk or just watch bad late-night TV, you know where I am.”

“I know.” Mable said as she leaned into her great uncle’s shoulder. “Is it okay if I stay here a while longer?”

“Sure, kid.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked this. This was a short drabble that was written up because I really wanted these two to have a heart to heart. The way the show creates parallels between their characters is amazing and tragic.


End file.
